


Can I kiss you?

by evilythedwarf



Series: Emma and Bandit!Regina in the Enchanted Forest [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Enchanted Forest AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 03:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4904641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilythedwarf/pseuds/evilythedwarf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Regina doesn’t walk into the church, but she doesn’t die either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can I kiss you?

Regina is kind.

She’s kind of an asshole, actually, but she’s also kind, and she doesn’t have it in her to stop someone else’s happiness in search of her own, apparently.

Which Emma should have known, really.

So, they’re screwed.

Good and screwed.

Not only are they running from Rumplestiltskin, and the Evil Queen, who Emma refuses to refer to as anything other than the Evil Queen because thinking of her hurts, it hurts so much, it hurts more than it should. Because when she was in that tower and she didn’t know why or how or even who she was, it was scary, terrifying, but when she became aware, when she experienced that spark of knowledge, when she realized who she was and why she was there and who had locked her up, the pain was almost enough to make her give up for good.

Until Henry.

Until Henry and Regina and having a purpose again.

Even if she has no idea how they are actually going to manage to set everything to rights, because her boyfriend, who she might have actually loved is dead, and Regina’s true love is married to someone else, and everyone seems to want them dead.

So.

Not only are they running for their lives, but they are also forced to survive in the woods.

It’s not fun and it’s not easy and she has no idea how Regina manages to keep her hair so shiny and clean all the time, and how she can stand to stay in the same outfit for days on end because she swears to god, one time in Storybrooke, Emma is sure she saw her wear 4 different sheet dresses in one day. Really.

They traded Henry’s clothes for more appropriate Enchanted Forest wear, everything but the scarf Emma couldn’t bear to see him part with, and they look like quite the little band. He’s taller than Regina.

He is TALLER than Regina.

Emma doesn’t even know how many days they have been on the run, surviving in the woods, living off the land, but Henry is taller than Regina now, and almost as tall as her and how did that happen?

When did Regina stop flinching every time he called her mom? (But Jesus fucking Christ, thank goodness she did, because the look of pure sadness on his eyes when she did, among all the things Emma just can’t handle, that was one of the biggest, meanest ones.) When did Henry get good enough with a bow and arrow that he could catch their dinner? When did Emma learn how to build a fire strong enough to cook said dinner?

Henry is sleeping next to the fire, wrapped in a heavy blanket that Regina insists she doesn’t need herself, even though the air is starting to cool and they are heading further north into Nottingham’s territory, but Emma can see the way she worries about their boy, and it’s both familiar and foreign, because Regina has always, always been his mother, but she’s never been this careless with her attentions, like Henry isn’t the biggest part of her world.

“Do you still think about him?” Regina asks her. She’s not looking at her. Instead, she’s looking at the fire, and Emma wonders who the question is really aimed at.

“Think about who?”

“Your pirate.”

“Sometimes,” Emma says. And sometimes she does. In a vague, could have been, maybe, sort of way. Mostly she thinks about that last day, and she thinks about the fight, but that makes her think about the Evil Queen, so she quickly backs away from that whole thing. “Do you think about the thief?” she counters.

“Sometimes,” Regina answers, and she throws a blade of dry grass at her. They both laugh, loud enough that Henry stirs in his makeshift pallet.

“He’s a good kid,” Emma says, and she wishes she could say more, she wishes she could tell Regina that she did this. That no matter what else happens, no matter where they end up, Henry is all her.

“He is,” Regina admits. “I wish,” she starts, she shakes her head, like she chasing away a bad thought. “I wish I could say he was mine.”

“We can say he’s ours,” Emma says.

Regina smiles at her then. A huge, unguarded smile, so much like her Regina, just as beautiful and just as hardly earned, but also not.

“Ours then,” Regina says, and she leans against Emma’s side.

They stare at Henry for a while longer, until the kid starts to snore. Loudly, and dramatically, and he didn’t get that from either of his mothers.

“Do you think he can be ours a little more quietly?”

Emma sets her head on top of Regina’s. It’s nice. Comfortable. In a way that maybe could never have been in Storybrooke and part of her feels like she shouldn’t take advantage, because Regina is clearly not working with a full knowledge of all the facts here. And part of her, the biggest part, thinks that they are stuck here for good. Forever. And shouldn’t she find whatever piece of comfort she can find?

“Can I kiss you?” Regina asks.

When she doesn’t answer, she nudges her on the shoulder. “Well, can I?” she asks again.

Emma nods, finally, telling all parts of herself that it helps no one to be miserable.

“Alright then,” Regina says, before turning around and pulling her in for a kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The first of a series of short stories I wrote after the S4 finale. Emma and Bandit!Regina in the Enchanted Forest.


End file.
